arXiv subjects

Benjamin Percival

Publications and source records attributed to Benjamin Percival.

15 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Classification of Pati--Salam Asymmetric $\mathbb{Z}_2 \times \mathbb{Z}_2$ Heterotic String Orbifolds

We develop a systematic classification of asymmetric $\mathbb{Z}_2$ orbifold actions in Pati-Salam heterotic string vacua constructed in the free fermionic formulation. Starting from symmetric $\mathbb{Z}_{2} \times \mathbb{Z}_{2}$ orbifold vacua with an $SO(10)$ GUT, we allow the Pati--Salam breaking vector to act asymmetrically on the internal degrees of freedom. The asymmetric orbifold action freezes geometrical moduli whilst inducing doublet--triplet splitting in the untwisted sector. Notably, this doublet-triplet splitting operates for any asymmetric action, including pure asymmetric shifts that preserve all geometric moduli, and is therefore independent of moduli stabilisation. Classifying the breaking vector according to its twist action, we find six inequivalent classes of geometric moduli spaces characterised by 12, 8, 4 or 0 real untwisted moduli. Through combining these asymmetric twists with all compatible asymmetric shifts, 24 inequivalent cases are identified and characterised by their residual moduli content and internal Narain lattice. For each case we construct representative basis sets admitting three chiral generations, providing the starting point for further classification within each class. We perform explicit GGSO (generalized Gliozzi-Scherk-Olive) phase enumerations in representative model classes with 12, 8, 4 and 0 moduli, classify the resulting $\mathcal{N}=1$ and $\mathcal{N}=0$ vacua according to phenomenological criteria and identify exophobic, phenomenologically viable models. We compute the partition function and corresponding one-loop vacuum energy at the free fermionic point in moduli space for each phenomenologically viable model across the four classes. As the number of geometrical moduli decreases, the number of distinct partition functions for these vacua collapses to a small number, reflecting a pronounced degeneracy under GGSO phase variations.

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arXiv2024

Vacuum Energy in Non-Supersymmetric Quasi-Realistic Heterotic-String Vacua with Fixed Moduli

Recently, Baykara, Tarazi and Vafa discussed the existence of quasicrystalline string vacua that contain a single neutral moduli, the dilaton, and studied compactifications of the non-supersymmetric $SO(16)\times SO(16)$ heterotic-string on these spaces. We discuss a specific class of quasi-realistic string vacua with similar properties that has been known since the late eighties and analyse the vacuum energy in several non-supersymmetric examples that correspond to compactifications of tachyon free ten dimensional vacua as well as compactifications of tachyonic ten dimensional vacua. Our analysis uses the Free Fermionic Formalism of the heterotic-string in four dimensions and employs asymmetric boundary conditions that project all the geometrical moduli by Generalised GSO projections. This methodology produces models with both positive and negative spacetime potential at one-loop.

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arXiv2024

Vacuum Energy of Non-Supersymmetric $\mathbf{\tilde{S}}$ Heterotic String Models

We use the free fermionic formulation of the heterotic-string in four dimensions to study the vacuum structure and energy of non-supersymmetric tachyon free models that correspond to compactifications of tachyonic vacua of the ten dimensional heterotic-string. We explore the class of heterotic $SO(10)$ non-supersymmetric models constructed from the $\tilde{S}$-model in the Free Fermionic Formalism, and investigate the dependence of the potential on the geometric moduli. This paper will explore a sample of $ 10^{9}$ string vacua to find the frequency of viable models, classifying these vacua by the following fertility criteria: tachyon presence; number of spinorial $\boldsymbol{16/\overline{16}}$ representations; vectorial $\boldsymbol{10}$ states; Top Quark Mass Coupling compatibility. Of these we find those that mimic supersymmetric models with equal number of bosons and fermions at the massless level - $a_{00} = 0$. Tachyon free models occur with a frequency of $5.309\times10^{-3}$. Furthermore, models that fulfil the rest of the phenomenological fertility conditions and the additional condition on $a_{00}$ occur with probability $4.0 \times 10^{-9}$ We analyse the partition functions and study the moduli dependence of such models, finding that almost all fertile models have finite, positive potential at the Free Fermionic Point, with $2$ out of $84$ of the fertile cores having negative, finite potential. We demonstratate that the Free Fermionic Point is not necessarily a minimum in the potential. This work provides further evidence that supersymmetry may not be a necessary ingredient of phenomenological models, recreating many of the desirable features of such models without employing supersymmetry.

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arXiv2023

D-term Uplifts in Non-Supersymmetric Heterotic String Models

Recently, we proposed that the one-loop tadpole diagram in perturbative non-supersymmetric heterotic string vacua that contain an anomalous $U(1)$ symmetry, leads to an analog of the Fayet-Iliopoulos $D$-term in $\mathcal{N}=1$ supersymmetric models, and may uplift the vacuum energy from negative to positive value. In this paper, we extend this analysis to new types of vacua, including those with Stringy Scherk-Schwarz (SSS) spontaneous supersymmetry breaking versus those with explicit breaking. We develop a criteria that facilitates the extraction of vacua with Scherk-Schwarz breaking. We develop systematic tools to analyse the T-duality property of some of the vacua and demonstrate them in several examples. The extraction of the anomalous $U(1)$ $D$-terms is obtained in two ways. The first utilises the calculation of the $U(1)$-charges from the partition function, whereas the second utilises the free fermionic classification methodology to classify large spaces of vacua and analyse the properties of the massless spectrum. The systematic classification method also ensures that the models are free from physical tachyons. We provide a systematic tool to relate the free fermionic basis vectors and one-loop Generalised GSO phases that define the string models, to the one-loop partition function in the orbifold representation. We argue that a $D$-term uplift, while rare, is possible for both the SSS class of models, as well as in those with explicit breaking. We discuss the steps needed to further develop the arguments presented here.

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arXiv2023

Free fermionic webs of heterotic T-folds

Moduli stabilisation is key to obtaining phenomenologically viable string models. Non-geometric compactifications, like T-duality orbifolds (T-folds), are capable of freezing many moduli. However, in this Letter we emphasise that T-folds, admitting free fermionic descriptions, can be associated with a large number of different T-folds with varying number of moduli, since the fermion pairings for bosonisation are far from unique. Consequently, in one description a fermionic construction might appear to be asymmetric, and hence non-geometric, while in another it admits a symmetric orbifold description. We introduce the notion of intrinsically asymmetric T-folds for fermionic constructions that do not admit any symmetric orbifold description after bosonisation. Finally, we argue that fermion symmetries induce mappings in the bosonised description that extend the T-duality group.

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arXiv2023

Fayet-Iliopoulos D-Term in Non-Supersymmetric Heterotic String Orbifolds

The Fayet-Iliopoulos $D$-term is a common feature in $\mathcal{N}=1$ string vacua that contain an anomalous $U(1)$ gauge symmetry, and arises from a one--loop diagram in string perturbation theory. The same diagram is generated in string vacua in which supersymmetry is broken directly at the string scale, either via spontaneous Scherk-Schwarz breaking, in which case the gravitino mass is determined by the radius of the circle used in the Scherk-Schwarz mechanism, or via explicit supersymmetry breaking by the GSO projections. We analyse the resulting would-be Fayet-Illiopoulos $D$-term in the non-supersymmetric string vacua and its contribution to the vacuum energy. A numerical estimate in an explicit tachyon-free string-derived model suggests that the would-be $D$-term contribution may uplift the vacuum energy to a positive value.

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arXiv2022

Towards Classification of $\mathcal{N}=1$ and $\mathcal{N}=0$ Flipped $SU(5)$ Asymmetric $\mathbb{Z}_2 \times \mathbb{Z}_2$ Heterotic String Orbifolds

The free fermionic classification method provides a powerful tool to investigate string vacua, which led to the discovery of spinor--vector duality and exophobic string models. We extend the classification methodology to both $\mathcal{N}=1$ and $\mathcal{N}=0$ Flipped $SU(5)$ $\mathbb{Z}_2 \times \mathbb{Z}_2$ heterotic string orbifolds with asymmetric shifts. The impact of the asymmetric assignments on the phenomenological characteristics of these models is investigated. Of particular interest is the analysis of untwisted moduli fixing for various choices of asymmetric boundary conditions. Two classes of vacua with different characteristics are systematically investigated with help from SAT/SMT algorithms, which are shown to increase search efficiency by up to two orders of magnitude, as well as providing useful tools to find contradictions between various phenomenological criteria. The general form of the partition function for the space of models is explained and given for two specific example models for different choices of asymmetric boundary conditions. Additionally, the distribution of one-loop cosmological constant contributions for samples in the two different classes of models are depicted and discussed.

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arXiv2021

Satisfiability Modulo Theories and Chiral Heterotic String Vacua with Positive Cosmological Constant

We apply Boolean Satisfiability (SAT) and Satisfiability Modulo Theories (SMT) solvers in the context of finding chiral heterotic string models with positive cosmological constant from $\mathbb{Z}_2\times \mathbb{Z}_2$ orbifolds. The power of using SAT/SMT solvers to sift large parameter spaces quickly to decide satisfiability, both to declare and prove unsatisfiability and to declare satisfiability, are demonstrated in this setting. These models are partly chosen to be small enough to plot the performance against exhaustive search, which takes around 2 hours 20 minutes to comb through the parameter space. We show that making use of SMT based techniques with integer encoding is rather simple and effective, while a more careful Boolean SAT encoding provides a significant speed-up -- determining satisfiability or unsatisfiability has, in our experiments varied between 0.03 and 0.06 seconds, while determining all models (where models exist) took 19 seconds for a constraint system that allows for 2048 models and 8.4 seconds for a constraint system that admits 640 models. We thus gain several orders of magnitude in speed, and this advantage is set to grow with a growing parameter space. This holds the promise that the method scales well beyond the initial problem we have used it for in this paper.

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arXiv2020

Type $\mathbf{\bar{0}}$ Heterotic String Orbifolds

The $Z_2\times Z_2$ heterotic string orbifold gives rise to a large space of phenomenological three generation models that serves as a testing ground to explore how the Standard Model of particle physics may be incorporated in a theory of quantum gravity. Recently, we demonstrated the existence of type 0 $Z_2\times Z_2$ heterotic string orbifolds in which there are no massless fermionic states. In this paper we demonstrate the existence of non--supersymmetric tachyon--free $Z_2\times Z_2$ heterotic string orbifolds that do not contain any massless bosonic states from the twisted sectors. We dub these configurations type ${\bar 0}$ models. They necessarily contain untwisted bosonic states, producing the gravitational, gauge and scalar moduli degrees of freedom, but possess an excess of massless fermionic states over bosonic ones, hence producing a positive cosmological constant. Such configurations may be instrumental when trying to understand the string dynamics in the early universe.

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arXiv2020

Classification of Non-Supersymmetric Pati-Salam Heterotic String Models

We extend the classification of fermionic $\mathbb{Z}_2\times\mathbb{Z}_2$ heterotic string orbifolds to non--supersymmetric Pati--Salam (PS) models in two classes of vacua, that we dub $\tilde S$--models and $S$--models. The first correspond to compactifications of a tachyonic ten--dimensional vacuum, whereas the second correspond to compactifications of the ten--dimensional tachyon--free $SO(16)\times SO(16)$ heterotic string. In both cases we develop a systematic method to extract tachyon--free four--dimensional models. We show that tachyon--free configurations arise with probability $\sim0.002$ and $\sim0.01$ in the first and second case, respectively. We adapt the `fertility methodology' that facilitates the extraction of phenomenological models. We show that Pati--Salam $\tilde S$--models do not contain heavy Higgs scalar representations that are required to break the PS symmetry to the Standard Model and are therefore not phenomenologically viable. Hence, we argue that in $\tilde S$--models the $SO(10)$ GUT symmetry must be broken at the string scale to the Standard--like Model subgroup. We extract tachyon--free three generation models in both cases that contain an equal number of massless bosonic and fermionic degrees of freedom, ${\it i.e.}$ with $a_{00}=N_b^0-N_f^0=0$, and analyse their one--loop partition function.

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arXiv2020

Type 0 $\mathbb{Z}_2\times \mathbb{Z}_2$ Heterotic String Orbifolds and Misaligned Supersymmetry

The $\mathbb{Z}_2\times \mathbb{Z}_2$ heterotic string orbifold yielded a large space of phenomenological three generation models and serves as a testing ground to explore how the Standard Model of particle physics may be incorporated in a theory of quantum gravity. In this paper we explore the existence of type 0 models in this class of string compactifications. We demonstrate the existence of type 0 $\mathbb{Z}_2\times \mathbb{Z}_2$ heterotic string orbifolds, and show that there exist a large degree of redundancy in the space of GGSO projection coefficients when the type 0 restrictions are implemented. We explore the existence of such configurations in several constructions. The first correspond to essentially a unique configuration out of a priori $2^{21}$ discrete GGSO choices. We demonstrate this uniqueness analytically, as well as by the corresponding analysis of the partition function. A wider classification is performed in $\tilde S$--models and $S$--models, where the first class correspond to compactifications of a tachyonic ten dimensional heterotic string vacuum, whereas the second correspond to compactifications of the ten dimensional non--tachyonic $SO(16)\times SO(16)$. We show that the type 0 models in both cases contain physical tachyons at the free fermionic point in the moduli space. These vacua are therefore necessarily unstable, but may be instrumental in exploring the string dynamics in cosmological scenarios. we analyse the properties of the string one--loop amplitude. Naturally, these are divergent due to the existence of tachyonic states. We show that once the tachyonic states are removed by hand the amplitudes are finite and exhibit a form of misaligned supersymmetry.

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arXiv2020

Towards the Classification of Tachyon-Free Models From Tachyonic Ten-Dimensional Heterotic String Vacua

Recently it was proposed that ten-dimensional tachyonic string vacua may serve as starting points for the construction of viable four dimensional phenomenological string models which are tachyon free. This is achieved by projecting out the tachyons in the four-dimensional models using projectors other than the projector which is utilised in the supersymmetric models and those of the $SO(16)\times SO(16)$ heterotic string. We continue the exploration of this class of models by developing systematic computerised tools for their classification, the analysis of their tachyonic and massless spectra, as well as analysis of their partition functions and vacuum energy. We explore a randomly generated space of $2\times10^9$ string vacua in this class and find that tachyon--free models occur with $\sim 5\times 10^{-3}$ probability, and of those, phenomenologically inclined $SO(10)$ vacua with $a_{00}=N_b^0-N_f^0=0$, i.e. equal number of fermionic and bosonic massless states, occur with frequency $\sim 2\times 10^{-6}$. Extracting larger numbers of phenomenological vacua therefore requires adaptation of fertility conditions that we discuss, and significantly increase the frequency of tachyon--free models. Our results suggest that spacetime supersymmetry may not be a necessary ingredient in phenomenological string models, even at the Planck scale.

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arXiv2019

Doublet-Triplet Splitting in Fertile Left-Right Symmetric Heterotic String Vacua

Classification of Left-Right Symmetric (LRS) heterotic-string vacua in the free fermionic formulation, using random generation of generalised GSO (GGSO) projection coefficients, produced phenomenologically viable models with probability $4\times 10^{-11}$. Extracting substantial number of phenomenologically viable models requires modification of the classification method. This is achieved by identifying phenomenologically amenable conditions on the Generalised GSO projection coefficients that are randomly generated at the $SO(10)$ level. Around each of these fertile cores we perform a complete LRS classification, generating viable models with probabilility $1.4\times 10^{-2}$, hence increasing the probability of generating phenomenologically viable models by nine orders of magnitude, and producing some $1.4\times 10^5$ such models. In the process we identify a doublet-triplet selection mechanism that operates in twisted sectors of the string models that break the $SO(10)$ symmetry to the Pati-Salam subgroup. This mechanism therefore operates as well in free fermionic models with Pati-Salam and Standard-like Model $SO(10)$ subgroups.

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arXiv2019

Stable Three Generation Standard--like Model From a Tachyonic Ten Dimensional Heterotic--String Vacuum

Recently it was proposed that the ten dimensional tachyonic superstring vacua may serve as good starting points for the construction of viable phenomenological models. Such phenomenologically viable models enlarge the space of possible string solutions, and may offer novel insight into some of the outstanding problems in string phenomenology. In this paper we present a three generation standard--like model that may be regarded as a compactification of a ten dimensional tachyonic vacuum. We discuss the features of the model as compared to a similar model that may be regarded as compactification of the ten dimensional $SO(16)\times SO(16)$ heterotic-string. We further argue that in the four dimensional model all the geometrical moduli are fixed perturbatively, whereas the dilaton may be fixed by hidden sector non--perturbative effects.

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arXiv2019

Towards machine learning in the classification of Z2xZ2 orbifold compactifications

Systematic classification of Z2xZ2 orbifold compactifications of the heterotic-string was pursued by using its free fermion formulation. The method entails random generation of string vacua and analysis of their entire spectra, and led to discovery of spinor-vector duality and three generation exophobic string vacua. The classification was performed for string vacua with unbroken SO(10) GUT symmetry, and progressively extended to models in which the SO(10) symmetry is broken to the SO(6)xSO(4), SU(5)xU(1), SU(3)xSU(2)xU(1)^2 and SU(3)xU(1)xSU(2)^2 subgroups. Obtaining sizeable number of phenomenologically viable vacua in the last two cases requires identification of fertility conditions. Adaptation of machine learning tools to identify the fertility conditions will be useful when the frequency of viable models becomes exceedingly small in the total space of vacua.

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